Getting Started with Heart Intention  
Choosing an Intention for Unity

Heart Intention is a meditation practice that awakens us to unity with life, opens us to begin healing our separation wounds, and inspires us to act with greater compassion.

Our felt isolation—the trap of “I, me, mine”—in which we are separate from other people, caught in the contracted egoic self that suffers, dies and acts in neglectful ways – is transformed when we discover our true nature in relationship with other people and life. “I, me, mine” yields to “us, we, ours”—the intuition of unity consciousness from which compassionate action more easily arises.

Heart Intention joins words that are directed towards unitive meaning with inner movements of consciousness in order to shift, and begin transforming our separate self- sense, in life and in activity.

A first step in the practice involves solidifying our motivation for the life of unity. We choose an intention in words that expresses the meaning of unity for us, personally.

Intentions can be expressed in different ways. Often people think of intentions as being the words of an affirmation. Heart Intention can be wonderfully practiced with an affirmation, if the affirmation is of unity. The following heart intention affirms the unity of life in a simple, direct way, a way that sets the stage for going deeper by joining the subtle movements of unity consciousness to these words:

Oneness is radiating life, in being

If that affirmation is meaningful, if it somehow, subtly, expressed a sense of life’s unity, use it to begin Heart Intention practice by repeating it, and briefly pondering its meaning in life.

· For example, what does this intention affirm about the natural world, and how does it motivate you to act towards, and in, nature?

· For example, what does this intention affirm about humanity, and how does it motivate you to act towards other people who look, act or believe differently than you?

· For example, what does this intention affirm about all your own complex and diverse emotions, parts and actions? How does this intention imply you act towards your own humanity, and others?

A key step of this beginning phase of Heart Intention practice is that once you have animated the sense of unity in your experience, in your current life, you then repeat, with a gentle sense of trust, Oneness is radiating life, in being, a few times.

 

Examples of Heart Intentions

In addition to affirmations, aspirations, prayers or mantras can also be used as intentions that express unity. Here are some more examples of intentions you can use to ponder, and then repeat to solidify your motivation to live by, in and with unity. Which intention below is most helpful for you, most expressive of unity?

A spiritual aspiration: May life, sourced in Oneness, breathe love in us, in being

A spiritual affirmation: Oneness, is radiating life, in being

A Christian prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us, Son of the Living God, Amen

A Christian mantra: Yeshua, Ruah, Abba, Amen

 

Heart Intention: Engaged, Embodied, Human, Nuanced

Heart Intention is a practice done during activity as well as during regular periods of sitting meditation, thereby helping to create more skillfulness in everyday life. So, we can reaffirm, ponder and apply our specific intention, for example, Oneness, is radiating life, in being, during the day. By doing so, we are more anchored, more motivated towards unity in our world of separation.

But the real significance of Heart Intention comes after we have chosen and begun practicing with our affirmation, aspiration, prayer or mantra. Beginning and nuanced Heart Intention practice is based on deepening awakening to unity consciousness. Choosing an intention and laying a foundation of motivation towards unity is important, and also a preliminary foundation for deeper practice.

· When the words of a Heart Intention are united with our breath, feelings and awareness, we can act in the busy distracted world with greater embodied heartful presence.

· When the words of a Heart Intention are directed in the mind towards our apprehension of Oneness, or the Divine, we are able to act in the complex technological world with greater focus and skill.

· When the words of a Heart Intention are surrendered in the heart to our own sense of Oneness, or the Divine, greater solidarity with others is borne.

· When the words of a Heart Intention evoke witnessing consciousness, we open into the timeless now of pure Being.

For more information, including developing resources such as experiential guided mediations and personalized guidance in Heart Intention, go to davidfrenette.com.

In Oneness we live and move and have our being